Blindfold training can be beneficial to the development, improvement, and enhancement of other sense capacities. Sight is the predominantly relied upon sense for information gathering. Yet, the eyes can be utilized by outside influences to access and manipulate the brain. Sight is not unimportant, but the predominance of using it tends to overshadow use of the other senses. By learning to use the other senses, the body / mind connection comes to be established on a more deep and inner level.
Practicing Martial Arts Kata while blindfolded is a methodology that positively impacts the person on several levels. Learning to function while blindfolded helps one to reign in attachment to sight driven, sense stimulation. Visual intake is the major avenue through which information filters through to the the brain and influences the body. Engaging (the) other senses to navigate daily activities can facilitate developing a deeper sensitivity within the individual.
Blindfold kata practice is a technology that imparts unifying effects upon the mind / body complex. Sight is the major, but not the only, vehicle of navigation through terrestrial space. It links into the other senses such that what is felt, tasted, smelled, or heard is subject to validation by sight. Inhibition of sight driven validation forces the mind to coordinate the other senses. This emphasizes and enhances these other sense capacities as the practitioner maneuvers the particulars of bodily motion while under physical duress (blindfolded).
There is an elemental step in the practical yogic tradition that focuses on extenuation of sense dependency. Pratyahara, the elemental 5th step, is the conscious withdrawal of the senses from external stimuli. On the physical level, as relates to kata, one is withdrawing a specific sense (sight) to establish inner equipoise. To function physically while sightless demands that one bring attention to developing interconnections between the remaining senses. Sightless kata practice, as pratyahara, lessens the reliance on sight validation and forces one to feel and to understand how their actions are occurring.
Although necessary, sight is a major byway through which desires, habits and proclivities can be exploited. Sight is easily diverted A person can be easily distracted because of something they may see. Commercials, advertisements and the like are designed to visually attract and thereby influence the individual. Blindfold kata practice trains the mind to disassociate from responding to sight mediated input. The influence of sight upon the mind and body is more easily mitigated because of the enhanced interplay of the other senses.
To utilize other senses is to develop sensitivity and awareness of those other sense functions. The prevalence of distraction in society is anathema complete integration of the senses with inner self. Imposed sightlessness is a path toward inner self mediated directive versus sight induced impulse spontaneity. Physical exercise performed while blindfolded compels one to slow down. The visual cues are no longer a source for orientation. Thus, one must feel how the remaining senses can function unitarily.
Various techniques within the Mind Body disciplines umbrella can be utilized to expand the capabilities of the practitioner. Sense deprivation from external stimuli can bring the individual to a state of heightened, inner harmonization. Sight, as a necessary sense-tool for daily life, can paradoxically be the source of major distraction. In the absence of sight, the practitioner is able to develop a unified interplay of the other senses (hearing, smelling, touching, tasting). This facilitates the individual being able to more intentionally direct and channel the influx of sight stimuli through a lens of detached observance.
Ultimately, the senses should be the vehicle that the individual uses to navigate within and rise above daily existence.
Ab-Sutra Wellness and Fitness 